This chapter... Let's just say there's a surprise near the end.

Supernova Space: Glad you liked Jasper and my interpretation of Piper! I can only answer one question of yours right now, and that is that yes, Frank and Hazel and going to be a huge part of the story.
minotaurbane: For me, Piper and Annabeth are like the Black Widow and Hawkeye of PJO. Less powerful than the other leads, but more badass than ANYONE else. I really really like them, and if there's one thing this fic is not going to lack, it's our favorite girls kicking ass and taking names.

Green VI.

Percy was nothing if not nervous.

It was, admittedly, illogical in the extreme. He, who hadn't flinched while murdering Leo Valdez, who had never doubted himself when taking random people around him to hell and back using only empty words, who hadn't stuttered during high-risk rescue operations reeking of deaths. He was nervous.

And it wasn't because he was afraid that Thalia Grace (or Jackson or whatever last name aunt Hestia had given her) would shoot him dead: Reyna was covering his back from far away. (She'd somehow procured a sniper rifle and two earpieces to help them, while he'd written an entire Choose-Your-Own-Adventure type script of possibilities to use so he wouldn't stumble halfway through the conversation.)

He was nervous because he had to get through a diplomatic mission with a girl that hated his guts and get vital intel from her while making her think that she was doing herself a favor by revealing it. All of that, without any actual leverage.

Another part of the reason for Percy's trepidation was that neither Reyna nor he had been able to draw up a personality for Thalia the Amazon. His text had been designed to draw out characteristic behaviors: 'Hey cuz, this is Percy Jackson. Listen, there's a delicate family matter I wanted to talk about. Are you free Sunday? Tell me where you wanna meet.'

Thalia, however, took two days to reply neutrally: 'Hi Percy. Yes, I'm free on Sunday. I'll send you the time and the location pin in a sec.' And all they'd gotten from that was that she knew the meeting wasn't family business and had discussed with the other Amazons before texting back.

Which probably meant she'd brought backup too, and Percy was in the crosshairs of some Amazon just as Thalia was in Reyna's.

He broke their standoff silence with "Who's the kid?"

In front of him in the dark alley stood two female figures. A young adult and a prepubescent. The girl who was presumably Thalia said, "My trainee."

His earpiece crackled and Reyna whispered, "Move closer, I can't hear her clearly."

He nodded to Reyna, pretending he was nodding to Thalia. "Aunt Hes never introduced us properly," he said, casually strolling toward the two hooded figures, "I'm Percy Jackson, your adoptive third cousin."

Thalia threw her hood off and the little girl beside her followed. Thalia was twenty-something. The other girl was maybe ten. "Thalia Grace," she said in way of greeting, "Show me your face. And tell me what you really wanted to talk about."

Percy took off his own hood and obliged. "It's really simp—"

She cut him off with one look at his face. "Oh, I remember you now. You were that guy at that big Jackson party at the huge-ass colonial hotel, right? The one that destroyed our rooms."

"I didn't destroy your rooms; it was just water."

Thalia's eyes narrowed. "Thirty thousand gallons of water that could've drowned me in my own room if I'd made a single wrong decision that day."

"That's an exag—"

"Take a minute longer to shampoo? Dead. Try on one other party dress? Dead. Reject babysitting duties and take a nap instead? At least that one's painless. Bring Alex and Meg to my room instead of taking them to the park? All of us dead. Because of a fourteen-year-old terrorist."

He tried to politely interject. "Listen, it's—"

"And everyone thought it was funny. Laughing idiots. Let me clear it up for you: my death, not funny."

His plan was starting to fall apart. "Thalia, if you'd just—"

"You're gonna go home in pieces today, kid. I'll cut—"

Alright let's put an end to this. "I saved Hestia's life! Just listen to me."

"I don't have to."

"Don't be stupid, Grace. You know you can't kill me. You know there are snipers on you and the girl. Let me explain myself."

Out of the corner of her eye, Thalia glanced at her companion. As expected, that forced her to back down. "How can you possibly explain yourself, Jackson?"

"I didn't send the water to you. I diverted the water from the main hall and lounge."

"You're lying."

Percy didn't bother acknowledging her. "One of the Brusè kids accidentally choked up a pipe during an open-air experiment in the lawn. I think he was trying to just stink it up, but misjudged horribly. The plug was just before the control valve, so nobody could just turn the water off. The pressure was unstoppable and it was building, and its only outlet was the event hall and the lounge next to it. Which were both stuffed because of the main event. And if the pressure was high enough to blow the pipes, it was definitely enough to kill dozens before they could escape.

"When I heard the news, I knew what I had to do. I went out and ran straight into the shadiest part of town and got some materials. (This was before I was a part of the Society, so it took quite a while.) When I came back, it was almost too late. I grabbed a blueprint of the piping system and found the best spot for what I was going to do.

"I don't know if you noticed it, but Hestia's room had a large diameter pipe near the surface and had a window that opened over the woods. I knew everyone was at the main event so the room would be empty. It was an honest mistake.

Thalia's face betrayed nothing. Percy continued reluctantly. "I broke into her room and set to work. First, I made a sprayable explosive and a powdered trigger. I used one part of it to make a hole in the pipe in Aunt Hestia's wall. Large enough to put my arm and head inside, to aim. The other part I made into a bundle and threw at the plug, just thirty yards from the hole. I cleaned up what was left of my mixing, then held my breath and threw the trigger powder at the clog. As expected, it exploded. The water came gushing through the pipe, and flooded the room.

"What wasn't expected was that a part of the pipe was also lined with the explosive when I threw it. The pipe that ran in your room exploded too, and your room flooded same as Aunt Hestia's. I was thrown out. Before I passed out, I managed to close the door, which was thankfully sturdy enough to hold the pressure for a while."

Still not giving away anything, Thalia said, "You didn't tell anyone."

"Because of the illegal/criminal part, yeah. The Brusè kid never told anyone because he didn't want to be caught, and so your rooms were labeled my fault. Fortunately or unfortunately, your entire image was 'Hestia's adopted delinquent', so nobody cared much about it, and so they laughed about it and the truth never came out. Hell, even Mom didn't force me too hard to go apologize, and she's an angel."

You're Sally's, right? Brunette, smells like chocolate?" She paused for confirmation. He nodded, perplexed. "She didn't tell you about…. She didn't care about me?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, adopter culture is messed up but it also saved my neck. I can't imagine what would've happened if it was a person actually related to me."

"I'm not— We're not not related. Sally knows that," she said. "Didn't she tell you that? Why didn't she tell you that?"

"You're adopted," he refuted simply, "You are not related to me."

"I'm adopted, but we're—we're… God. Ask your mom, she'll tell you how we're related. She was the one who convinced Hestia to take me in, for Pete's sake."

Percy was irreversibly confused. "What the hell are you talking about? How can we possibly be related?"

"Not my story to tell."

"What the—"

"This is supposed to be about the emergency preparation, Percy," Reyna chided, "As much as I'm loving this, maybe sort out your family drama some other time."

Even though he hated leaving a matter on a cliffhanger, he agreed that there were more important things to be done. And so, with a sigh he started his original speech. "Let's put family (or not family) matters aside for now. Thalia, I'm going to tell you a few snippets of information, and you may get enraged by some of it but you'll benefit from not killing me before I finish. Just like before, listen and step back and chill, okay?"

Her eyes narrowed, but she nodded. He took a deep breath and started. "You know that I'm a Beta of the organization called the Society. I know you're an Advisor ranking Amazon. We're both one step from the top: we have considerable influence but little actual control.

"A few weeks ago, two spies creeped into your networks and copied important information about the Amazons. It was me and Kira, another Beta. Now, before you explode, not all the information you think was stolen was actually stolen."

"Explain," Thalia hissed, "Explain while you still can."

"When you guys were trying to find out what was taken, at first you thought nothing was taken, right? But then you found most of it was taken? Well, today go back again and check again, properly. You'll find we only took the transactions and the profiles of the Queen, Advisors, and Veterans."

"Not the lower ones?" she asked.

"Nope, only their populations. I laid two traps for you— 'We took nothing' and 'We took everything'. And most of what we stole, Kira deleted before showing the rest of the Society. 'Cause bullet junkies were in control back then, and they would've one hundred percent launched an attack on you, and we didn't want those kinds of death tolls."

Some of the tension in her muscles visibly dissipated. "If you don't want to declare war or threaten us, what are we here for? Is this a peace treaty negotiation?"

"It can turn into one. As I said, we went through your transactions. And found you'd spent a lot of money on things like food and water and shelter. More than you spent on drugs, even. Now, I made theories about why the hell that could be, and the most probable one was that something big is coming. Something that'll be catastrophic to normal food sources, housing, and maybe civilization in general. Something straight out of an apocalyptic movie. Maybe a nuke, maybe an outbreak."

Thalia didn't respond, but the brown-haired girl next to her asked, "Thalia, how does he know about the fucocalypse?"

"What?" said Reyna and Percy, in that order.

Thalia's right eye twitched. Without looking at the little girl, she asked, "Who taught you that word, Emma?"

The little girl, now named Emma, timidly pointed over her shoulder at a building behind them, and said, "But... Phoebe said to call it that. She told me that's what we call it."

"Don't use that word. It's not— part of it is a bad word, okay? Just call it 'apocalypse'."

"Or 'doomsday' or 'armageddon'," Percy added cheekily.

"Yes. Don't listen to what she says."

Percy cleared his throat and, making a show of adjusting his earpiece, said, "Kira, can you please search for Phoebe in the building that Emma so kindly pointed out?"

Thalia's jaw tightened. "Way ahead of you," Reyna said, and went on to relay Phoebe's location and database information.

He grinned and recited to the two Amazons in front of him: "Phoebe Claret. Seventeen, rank Veteran. Meth lover, trigger-happy, small home outside the city. See, Thalia, this is why children are loose cannons."

"I get that," she gritted out, "What I don't get is your point with all this."

"Yeah, my point is that we know you're prepping for doomsday. We just don't know exactly what it is. We can guarantee you peace if you tell us the nature of the emergency. If you don't, there will be war. We'll just stock up on everything, which will be time consuming and a pain in the ass, but not impossible to do. We'll survive, and give you hell continuously. Before and after doomsday. So, if you want to live free of the totally avoidable stress of random and totally avoidable deaths and injuries, give us the details."

Thalia didn't shoot him dead, which was a nice thing. But she didn't agree either. "There no guarantee you'll hold up on your end of the bargain", she said, "There's no guarantee we'll tell the truth."

Well, that's off script.

It was a good point, and Percy was pissed he hadn't thought of it and prepared for it already. He rummaged through his brain to try and come up with a solution. The first thing that came to his mind was a wedding custom.

"A precious gift," he declared with more confidence that he had the right to, "is the way out. Hapan fiancées give each other a precious gift before marriage so as to guarantee no one gets jilted at the altar. So precious that the act of running away is unthinkable considering the cost (material and/or symbolic) of what they've given as a token. Like a very expensive engagement ring. Very, very expensive."

Reyna groaned. "Is this from that Star Wars fan fiction you've been pestering me all week about? Seriously?"

"I'll have you know that story is a masterpiece. It's epic, beautiful and realistic: I have the God given natural right to babble about it to you."

Thalia interrupted before he could ramble on. "And how will this work?"

"Simple. Each side tells the other what it wants as a guarantee token. After taking into consideration what it needs the most and what it thinks the others won't risk losing, of course. The tokens are exchanged when you give us the info. The peace treaty is finalized simultaneously. Tokens are returned post the apocalypse if both sides agree that it was worth it."

Thalia seemed to consider it. "Three days later, right at this spot. I'll text you what we want. I assume you've got the Scrambler app?"

He nodded. "Your body language is very telling, you know. And currently I'm reading that you think we're harmless. You probably plan to feed us a red-herring about the doomsday and get the peace treaty finalized. To shatter your illusion, let me give you some much needed perspective.

You Amazons are one of the worst 'gangs' when it comes to doing actual gang-stuff I've seen. Maybe your motivation is something else; I don't care. Point is, we're way better than you at this. All the tech you use? It's all created by our Elicii. Your fighters? We have more and better. And I'm guessing your intelligence of the other gangs ranges from limited to zero.

"Let me give you a titbit of intel for free: did you know that eight months ago our Alpha started a rampage that killed or permanently incapacitated twenty five percent of the total number of gang members in this city? In six months. That's the kind of fighters we have. When I said a fight between the Amazons and the Society would have a high death toll, I was being kind when I didn't mention it was you that would be obliterated with less than a tenth of us dead."

Thalia, Emma and Reyna, all three were silent at his speech.

Which was expected: lying on the fly was his strong suit.

It worked like magic. Thalia was shaken. The psychopath suggested smiling to ensure the damage was permanent, and Percy obliged. Thalia closed her eyes and didn't speak for a long time.

Percy decided to spare her and said, "I'm leaving now, Thalia. Try to shoot me and Phoebe and Emma will be dead before you can find the trigger. I expect the text about the token you want by tomorrow evening. Seven, to be exact."

As he walked away, Percy heard a series of despondent mumbles, but chose to ignore them.

"Get to the rendezvous," Reyna said, "I'll keep track of them, then come meet you."

"Eyes on Phoebe, if you will. I think Thalia's smart enough to keep quiet."

"Sure. By the way, you do know your winning card in a negotiation for the truth was a bluff, right?"

"Kira Summer, I thought you knew that honesty isn't really our style."

They were strolling through the Labyrinth, waiting to get picked up by passing Aids, when the thought of bodily waste occurred to Reyna. "Crap," she said.

"What's wrong?"

"Jason Grace. He'll tell her all the secrets we have to offer and he'll also call your bluff."

It was a strange time for Reyna to bring up the Jason-Thalia drama, but who was he (alias ADHD Jackson) to judge?

"I was going to tell you myself later. Don't worry about it. Ever since Annabeth became Alpha, I've tried to get reads on both her and Grace, and I've concluded that yes, she's a power-hungry bitch, as you put it. Jason's worryingly normal. And I don't mean his normal. I mean normal normal.

"Now, Annabeth trying to ascend and Jason leaking data to his sister are two rare events in and of themselves. Together? Impossible. That means she fabricated that story. Another thought—if Thalia knew about Jason and he about her, why didn't they already collaborate and put an end to our snooping around in Amazon territory?"

"So Grace wasn't a traitor. Shouldn't we tell this to Mr D?"

"Nah. Annabeth's easier to trick into obeying us, let's keep her in power while—" Around a corner, they saw a light approaching, and he stopped his assessment. "You got your masks on?"

She nodded. "Boy, you go. Girl, I go. If it's you, pour out a glass of the '86 white for me. Oh, and a Man-C."

He replied in kind. "If it's you, that new double malt and one of your Becks for me."

It was, in fact, a Lambda named Hanna. Reyna got on her bike, donned the helmet and sped away. Percy had to walk for another five minutes before a Nu named Josh found him.

Six minutes later, he was handing over his token, a triple-A dry cell, and laughing at Argus' joke of the day. "Well, Chiron in a ballgown is a sight I'd literally kill to see."

Argus smiled deviously. "No need. I'll look for photos."

"I've got to go now, but tell me when you find 'em, okay? I wanna put them on the projector."

Argus tutted. "Now, now. That's too far, Jackson. We don't want the old man to drop dead out of sheer shame."

He exchanged another grin with the colossus and left.

The walk to his room on the Beta Corridors was long. After only a few weeks in his original, central room, he'd understood why the Betas all gravitated, in the end, toward the same three corridors. (Privacy was the least of it.) He'd moved to them as soon as he realized the benefits. Post his confession to Reyna, he'd moved again, a shorter distance from one Beta Corridor to the other, two doors down from Reyna. Unfortunately, their neighbors were Andrew and Bill too.

The three Beta Corridors, Percy'd found, were built for that purpose. They were distant from the entrance and the central hustle-bustle. They had a fire exit and a secure comms port nearby. And it was close to the room called Workspace, where Betas did their daily work. That by itself was enough evidence it was meant to be a Beta settlement. There were ten rooms in total, and Percy wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the presence of empty rooms in the hallways specifically built for Betas, unsettled him for some reason.

He shook off the thought and unlocked his door. His room was a mashup of patches of messy and OCD: A neutral, made bed with blue sheets, an ultraclean desk and matching alcohol/nicotine/drug/tech cabinet (concealing a doorway), and a barren ESD table for tinkering; The messy parts were his bookshelf, couch, and stash of emergency clothes. I should probably keep that more organized... It is made for emergencies.

But Reyna was waiting for him, and so he ditched his room and pressed his hand to the biometric scanner concealed by the cabinet. Accepting him, the cabinet slid to the right and revealed the empty room they'd overtaken. And Reyna sitting on the couch, nursing her white.

He wanted to crack a joke but felt something off and stopped himself. Instead, he picked up the glass she'd filled for him and fell onto the couch beside her. "Where were we?" he asked after downing a quick mouthful.

"You were saying we should keep Chase in power while something."

"Yes, we should keep her in power while running the government ourselves, like what you said you did when Luke Castellan was alive. What did you call it?"

"An oligarchy. Hmm, that sounds good enough. You really think she's controllable?"

"I do. She's cornered herself for us. Her image is 'tough but new leader', while Chiron, Lupa and us Betas are already symbols of power. We can trap her, leave her no choice but to follow our advice/commands."

"You're right. Let's keep her in power; I didn't like Grace anyway. Which reminds me, I have a more pressing topic."

"Go on."

"How are you planning to do this deal with Thalia Grace? We can't involve the entire Society, not without Mr D or Chiron and Lupa punishing us for secrets. But we have to, if we have to potentially declare all-out war. Or even if they do tell us, we'll have to tell everyone to prepare and how will we answer 'Where'd you get that info?' then?"

"About that..." Percy toed off his shoes, crossed his legs under him on the sofa, and turned to face her. "I don't plan on revealing the doomsday thingie to everyone. Now, before you say I'm heartless, let me finish.

"Here are my points:
(1) Lots of backstabbers in here.
(2) I don't particularly care about any of these guys. I also actively hate some. I know it's the same for you.
(3) There is no strength in numbers, not in this case. More people surviving will only mean less resources and shelter per person.
(4) More people knowing will mean a higher chance of word getting out. Even if we send a 'shut your fricking mouths' directive, I can guarantee you that there's at least ten weak privileged dumbassses in here who'll freak out and call the authorities. Which we can't have, 'cause the apocalypse may be (and I strongly think it will be) man-made."

Reyna's face was unreadable. "What are you saying we should do?"

"My suggestion is that we don't tell anyone. We listen to what the Amazons' demands. We ask for a valuable token from them. I manipulate people into giving the Amazons their token."

She seemed to be considering it, looking at her wineglass. "Without the Society we don't have the resources to follow up on our threats, though."

"Sure we do. Zack can be fed false intel. I'm sure he's childish enough to start a testosterone-fueled war. Annabeth will have to follow through with the attacks 'cause she's new. We can think more, but I think this is the only way we can do this."

"What if it's true?" Reyna asked softly, pointedly not looking at him, "What if there's a massacre coming?"

"You who you wanna protect, I choose the people I wanna protect. Tell them nothing about it, but prepare supplies for them and ourselves. Post-doomsday, we all get busy hiding. Reveal our double lives to them, maybe train them a little. End state? One big scared family, surviving."

She was quiet for a moment before turning to him. "You've given this thought."

"A little." Percy shrugged. "The important part is not telling them about it because, for example, my mom may protest that she wants to save five other people she cares about. But I don't care about saving some lady in her book club. And you know that the two of us have to carry all the burden ourselves only. So we'll have to keep calm and take only who we love. We can only trust ourselves."

He was scared she'd call him selfish/cruel/heartless.

Instead, she just asked, "Who are the people you want to save?"

"Mom, you and Paul," he said without hesitation, "What about you?"

"I, uh... I don't have anybody. You, of course. And Hylla, maybe?"

He took a deep breath to stop a storm of expletives. "You want to save your sister. That monster. Who shouldn't even be alive right now."

"I don't have anybody," she repeated, "Just you and her. Nobody knows me except you two. Is it so terrible to wish she lives?"

Her criminals are her own, Percy reminded himself. "It's not. I'm sorry, Reyna…."

She looked away. "That's... settled, then." Reyna refilled her glass, and changed the subject. "What do you think they'll ask for?"

"Don't know. Best guess? Assuming they think we're as close knit as they are: a few high-rankers. That's literally the only thing I can think of. The token has to be a deterrent pre- and post-doomsday, and be crippling enough that we won't dare have it destroyed. Data is useful but can't be returned/unsent."

"Hmm. How will we prove they're high-ranking?"

"Good skills, maybe... Look, I haven't thought this through. And the problem itself is difficult. I have a sinking feeling it's a complex form of the Two Generals' Problem in networking, and that itself is provably impossible to solve!"

"It's good enough for an on-the-spot solution. Hopefully they'll be just as confused by it, and end up asking something easy."

"And hopefully we don't do the same. I'm confused myself: The fanfic didn't do much explaining about it. I've got half a mind to suggest a three personnel exchange, because that's the best solution deal-wise and 'keep it secret from the others'-wise."

"Yeah?" Reyna said as she mirrored his seat on the couch, "How will we keep it secret? Who'll we send?"

"Well, we 'kill' the Elicii to be exchanged on paper and for the Society. Tell the Amazons that some policy requires them to be considered dead, and ask them to keep up the illusion and treat the hostages as dangerous prisoners. We'll tell the hostages that this is part of an elaborate peace treaty."

"This is getting pretty difficult to keep up with. And how are we going to keep three high-ranking Amazons hostage? And in secret?"

"I'll find a way to keep them on a leash from afar." Like a venomous capsule in their bloodstream that opens at remote command, coupled with Big Brother surveillance. He didn't say that part 'cause it was already quite gloomy.

Apparently satisfied with that, she reiterated her second question. "Who will we send?"

He counted them off on his fingertips. "Clarisse La Rue, pretending to be one of our military heads; Jason Grace, important because family and ex-Alpha; You."

She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I sense this is another attempt to ship me off so the Amazons will keep me safe. Am I right or are you lying?"

He laughed. "Option one, milady. Or two. I have taught you well."

Reyna smirked, bowing mockingly. "Thank you."

In another one of the sudden bursts of joy and desire that seemed to always hit him whenever she was near, he blurted, "I love you."

Her response was less romantic. "You're supposed to say 'You're welcome, my star pupil.'"

He acted affronted. "Well, you're supposed to say 'I love you, too.'"

"I didn't say that because I don't, stupid. I'm tricking you in tagging along for me to use as a human shield later!"

"Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, it'd be my pleasure to be your human shield."

She smiled softly, her eyes glowing. And then she leaned forward and kissed him.

It was something belonging to heaven and something belonging to hell. It was like a thunderstorm. It was like the sun peeking at the cleansed Earth after a thunderstorm. It was messy because it was her first and because he hadn't been gentle and loving in so many years and didn't want to screw up, but it was beautiful because it was her and him. She tasted like stars and hope.

They parted after a short first wave, and promptly burst into giggles like adolescents. Their noses were touching, he was in danger of falling off, they were both on their knees on a leather couch with unfinished drinks and unlit cigarettes and cigars spectating. (Thank God we didn't smoke first.)

Reyna looked amazing when she laughed. He wanted to say she'd make a goddess jealous, but he'd already done that the first time he'd seen her.

And whatever else he was, Percy wasn't a one-trick pony. Or a one-compliment boyfriend.

His hand came up to cup her cheek. Her hands looped around his neck. He opened his mouth to tell her how much he loved her, but they were kissing again before he could. Percy gripped the sofa's back to support himself and Reyna, who was using his neck to stay upright herself. Percy felt the memories of kisses less and more intense return, and guided her through it.

When they separated for air, he repositioned them so he was sitting properly on the leather while she was in his lap, her legs wrapped around his waist. They'd sped through maybe a thousand small steps of physical boundaries but Percy didn't care because they were different and he liked it and she wasn't not liking it.

Reyna blinked once, twice. "I love you," she said, out of breath and husky.

"Was that so hard?"

"I thought it was. It isn't because it's you," she said with heart-breaking sincerity, "You're good and I like you."

There was a small and unbearable gap between their lips, and he closed it slowly, trying to savor the anticipation and the realness. Both his hands were cradling Reyna's face then, and her hands gripping his shoulders as if to ground herself, to stop him leaving.

Percy'd always thought their first kiss would happen after some life-changing event or something like that. Maybe after a close call with death on a mission gone right, or maybe on one of their birthdays. But no, even in their world of shadows and guns and life-or-death stuff, it was a bad, bad joke that made them kiss.

I've got to start joking more if it leads to this...

He slanted his mouth on hers and they both pushed closer, melding, conjoining. One of his legs was about to fall asleep due to wrong positioning and her soft and rough hands were practically reshaping his shoulder plates but it was Reyna and nothing could make him stop if she didn't want to.

His brain turned back on when she tried to deepen the kiss and begin the tongue part. It was clear she had the barest of ideas on how to do it, because good God she was bad. He pulled back for the exact amount of time it took to say "Not ready", and Reyna retreated to familiar territory (if it could be called that).

In under two minutes, Percy realized the leg could make him stop after all.

He pulled back. Her eyes were hurt. He smiled slightly and reassured her. "My leg's asleep. This is more than enough for the first time anyway." Gingerly lifting her an inch off of him, he moved them into a more comfortable position.

"That was... really good. We were so close… it felt so nice. Why didn't you tell me before that it felt so nice to kiss?"

I didn't remember it ever feeling so nice. And maybe it never felt nice when it wasn't with you. "Because then you'd try to jump. Well, we did jump a lot of steps, but that can't be helped now. Anyway, slow and steady lasts longer. That one sentence helps out in places you would not believe."

Reyna just smiled wryly, and he couldn't stop a grin from sliding into his face.

Percy was ecstatic beyond words. He was overjoyed because Reyna was recovering, rebuilding. He was happy because he'd stayed in the moment and hadn't dug up memories and nightmares of Calypso. He hadn't thought of anything but the amazing girl in front of him. He was grateful the past wasn't as haunting as he'd feared.

So, Calypso's techniques do work! Should never have doubted her about stuff like this. Memories in parti— Wait. Calypso taught me how to forget the terrible stuff. Reyna wants to forget the terrible stuff. Goddamnit, how can I be so stupid?! You f—

"Your eyebrows are drawn together and your nose is scrunched up. I'd say you're looking cute but you're also looking just like when you remembered who Thalia was."

His hands tightened around her waist instinctively. "ADHD coupled with that past I've been trying to bury means I have a lot of epiphanies/realizations and other things at the worst, worst possible times. This one isn't bad, just stupid."

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

"I... know a techni— Calypso created a method to bury memories. Truly and fully bury them. The two of us used to do so many stupid brainy things to pass the time and use our potential, you know, and she created this technique one day, on a whim. We tried it out, and were both pretty receptive. Later, to pass even more time, we created a full course for normal people to do it. Which means that I can teach you and you can bury everything."

She smiled but without hope in her eyes. "Does it involve remembering them again before burying them?"

"It doesn't... except at the very end, when you're choosing which memories to dump. Extremely painless, I promise."

Reyna got off him. Percy's heart stopped. But then she sat down right next to him. Right next to him, unlike before. She grabbed her wineglass and handed him his. They were both leaning into the contact.

"If it's really going to work, teach me. I want to leave it behind."

"If there was even half a percent chance that it could fail, I wouldn't have recommended it."

"Tell me how it's gonna be."

Against his better judgement, Percy obliged. "It's called the 'Multi-Floor Brain' technique. Separates layers of memories so you can stuff something in the basement and not touch it ever again. It's inspired by parallel processing in computers, and so you'll have to learn that first. Starts with simple things like doing math while keeping time with a metronome, then build up to more sophisticated multi-threading."

Reyna scooched to the end of the couch and pulled her legs up so she could face him. One hand absently playing with her hair, she said, "That doesn't sound so bad. But then again, you may be over-estimating me. Bringing my normal brain to Calypso and your levels must take months."

"Correction, this method doesn't work on upgrading all of your brain. That would take six painful years. And trust me, you don't want to be me." He grinned. "This has a smooth learning curve. I'm estimating it'll take between three to ten months."

"Well, then. Teach me."

"You want to start right now?"

"Yeah. Sooner the better."

Well, it's her training.

"Alright, first we should both stop drinking now. I know we've got great tolerances, but I want clear heads all around. I'll lead by example." He put his glass down and nodded at her to follow.

Reyna downed the contents of her glass without breaking eye contact.

Percy made the executive decision to not acknowledge that. "Okay. First task: I'm going to teach you how to keep track of seconds. Then we'll learn to do it while adding two-digit numbers asynchronously. For now, I'll start counting and you try to remember how long a second feels, okay?"

She nodded wordlessly. In her eyes was only determination and acceptance of the challenge.

"Right, so." He looked at his watch and began counting the seconds.

In my head this chapter was awesome! :D
What came out... I don't know. :(
Please tell me how it was for you. :)